


The Apocalyptic Man

by KoboldKing



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Precognition, Prompt Fic, Time Travel, r/writingprompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 03:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16803139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoboldKing/pseuds/KoboldKing
Summary: Two men with the power to change time meet, and the universe creaks and shudders in response.





	The Apocalyptic Man

**Author's Note:**

> [Written in response to a writing prompt on reddit two years ago.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/4ypbs1/wp_you_are_a_timetraveler_whose_power_only_allows/)

Infinite minutes.

That's what I see. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Infinite minutes. Infinite _possible_ minutes. I'll pour myself a coffee, and I'll see a minute spent enjoying its warm flavor. I'll also see a minute of cleaning up a mess from a spill. I'll see a minute of me fishing in the freezer for a bag of ice to press against a bad coffee burn. I'll see a minute of me dropping my mug and swearing loudly to the room at large, making my wife scold me for dropping the F-bomb in front of our now crying two year old daughter.

I swear, this power makes it so damn hard to just enjoy a cup of joe.

I can't say it's not ever useful. Occasionally I'll see someone's reckless driving just in time to swerve out of the way in the right direction and spare myself a headlight change. Occasionally I'll be able to sort through the trillions of possible word choices that are usable in a conversation quickly enough to figure out what to say to my wife before she blows her fuse. Occasionally I'll fantasize about using it to stop a bank robbery or rescue someone from certain death. I'd be a hero.

I never expected or hoped for the apocalyptic man.

There was something _off_ about that man. He had a determined stride, a look in his eyes that went above and beyond mere confidence. A lot of people walk and talk like they know everything, like you're just a peasant who couldn't possibly understand the things they do. The apocalyptic man probably _did._

He strode up to my desk, a thin smile across his lips.

"I'm here about insurance," he told me flatly.

"So are most people," I grunted. "Let me just-"

I cut off in raw shock. A minute into the future... now even less... everything _ended._

I couldn't explain it. All the billions of possible minutes, all the bite-sized timelines that I usually saw... they all just cut short a minute away. Like the whole universe suddenly cut off at the flip of a switch. I was almost floored by the sensation, by the sudden inarguable knowledge flooding into my mind that this man could and would destroy all of time in one minute.

The apocalyptic man raised an eyebrow, his confidence overtaken by surprise. Instinct told me this man had come to hate surprises. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," I stammered, knocking over my cup of coffee in my disarray. I could have prevented that, but it seemed so insignificant compared to the end of all reality. To the end of me. To the end of my wife. To the end of our daughter...

The man's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps I came to the wrong desk..."

He said it not to me, like most snotty customers would. He said it to himself. Musingly, like addressing a mistake he was about to fix. The future shortened at once. This man was about to instigate the end of all timelines.

I saw only a small, bare handful of timelines where he didn't. Almost impossible worlds where a random meteorite struck the man down before he could do whatever it is he did. Where a truck bulldozed in and killed him where he stood. Where a crazed random gunman blew out his brains before he could work his magic.

Instinct told me I wasn't in any of those timelines. If this man were to die, for the good of the whole universe, I'd have to do it myself.

"For the future!" I blurted, and stabbed a pen at-

* * *

"For the future!" I blurted, charging across the office to where the apocalyptic man was attempting to acquire insurance from another desk. His eyes widened in surprise and I tackled him to the ground, wrapping my hands around his throat as-

* * *

"For the future!" I blurted, charging across the office to where the apocalyptic man was attempting to acquire insurance from another desk. He looked at me with an almost frustrated look as he stepped effortlessly out of the way, and I faceplanted into the hard tile floor. The woman behind the other desk gasped as the man tried to turn and run away, but I just barely managed to parse timelines and grab him by the ankle as he ran. He fell and his face hit the floor, and my heart soared as a loud crack suggested he just might possibly have broken his-

* * *

There was something _off_ about that man. He had a determined stride, a look in his eyes that went above and beyond mere confidence. A lot of people walk and talk like they know everything, like you're just a peasant who couldn't possibly understand the things they do. The apocalyptic man probably _did..._ but suddenly, his omniscient expression faltered as he grabbed his nose in outrage.

"For fuck's sake!" he exclaimed loudly, shooting me with a glare. "You could have killed me!"

I had no idea what he was talking about, but in my mind's eyes I saw an infinite number of timelines ending. My life ending. My wife's life ending. Our daughter's life ending. I quickly got up from my desk with a pen in my hand, finding my feet moving of their own volition to carry out the only thing I knew would stop this madman from destroying the universe.

"For the-"

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

The apocalyptic man glowered at me as he strode in through the building's doors. He glanced back as if considering walking right back the way he came, but instead his expression turned to one of pure fury as he marched over to my desk and leaned angrily over my face.

"What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?" he demanded.

I had never seen him before in my life, and had no idea how to respond. But in an instant, I saw a trillion timelines ending, entire universes destroyed because of _something_ this man was doing. Out of instinct I grabbed for the pen on my desk, but his hand stopped me.

"See?" he demanded. "This is what I'm talking about! Every time I come in here you take one look at me and try to gouge my eyes out or cut open my wrists or drag me out into traffic! I can't go back before I came in here! Whatever I do, I'm _stuck_ here with some psychopath trying to murder me! So I reiterate! What the _fuck_ is wrong with you and how do I get you to stop?"

I was silent for a long minute, confused as I was stunned. My mouth was dry as the weight of all the ending timelines around me pressed against my mind, but I managed to speak.

"...you end it all."

The apocalyptic man's gaze didn't falter. "What? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"The universe," I said weakly. "The _timeline._ Something you're doing is going to destroy it. Exactly one minute from now, maybe, or less depending on when you choose to do whatever it is you're doing..."

I was confused, barely having any idea what I was saying. But some of the anger in the man's face turned to uncertainty. "Something I'm doing? I don't... I don't understand. I don't destroy anything."

"You will," I replied, my voice haunted. "And maybe you have before. I don't know. I don't understand what it all means, but I know you're going to kill... _everyone_."

His eyes grew wide, and he let go of my hand as he backed away in shock. It seemed a huge realization had just hit him like a falling meteorite, shaking his world to pieces in a second. "No... no, I didn't... oh God..."

I watched him with a nervous gaze, unsure of what to do. A part of my brain demanded that I get up and try to kill this man, my body inching to do it as if it were something I'd done a thousand times before... but I didn't.

I watched him.

Infinite minutes went by in my head.

Second by second, the number of them that ended in annihilation went down.

"Vanessa," the apocalyptic man muttered, running his fingers through his hair. "Bobby. I... I killed you... I killed you all... I'm sorry... I never knew..."

His face was stark white, his eyes looking like he was being surrounded by ghosts as he talked. His legs swayed deeply underneath him, but instead of falling, he began to walk towards the door.

"I destroyed... I didn't know! I swear! I never meant..."

He turned and ran, right back out the door he'd so confidently swaggered in to.

Everyone in the office was watching the door he'd ran out from with shock and concern, before their gazes turned to me. I gulped uncomfortably, unsure what to say. Before finally, in my mind's eye, I saw the last apocalyptic timeline disappear from the realm of possibility.

Outside there was screaming. Within an hour, there were sirens, but it was already too late.

The apocalyptic man had dived into rushing traffic. They say he was dead in a second.

But me... I went back to an unspilled mug of coffee. I try not to let his last haunted gaze get to me. I'll never know exactly who that man was or what I did to him.

But at least we still have our minutes.

Infinite minutes.


End file.
